Build Your Own AI Research Agent - in One Day

A hands-on Agentic AI workshop for life science students, researchers, and professionals.

Turn a scientific question into an AI-powered research workflow.

Learn to build AI agents that search scientific literature, retrieve biological evidence, compare findings, and generate structured research reports. Follow guided hands-on sessions, work with pre-built templates, and explore how specialised agents collaborate on research tasks.

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14 November 2026  |  Saturday · 10:00 AM–4:00 PM IST

 

What you’ll work on:

• Build a Literature Research Agent to search papers and organise evidence.

• Develop a Life Science Research Workflow for target identification, gene/protein annotation, or drug repurposing evidence mining.

• Explore Multi-Agent Systems through a live demonstration of specialised research agents working together.

Includes: Reusable agent templates · E-certificate for attendees · Workshop recording access for five days

One-Day National Hands-on Workshop on Agentic AI, Scientific Research Automation & AI-Powered Life Science Workflows

Workshop Details:

• Date: 14 November 2026, Saturday
• Time: 10:00 AM–4:00 PM IST
• Format: Online via Google Meet
• All attendees will get a participation certificate

Organised by BioTecNika

What Will You Learn to Build?

1. A Literature Research Agent

Turn a scientific question into a structured literature research workflow.

Research Question → Literature Search → Paper Identification → Information Extraction → Evidence Comparison → Research Report

Work with resources such as PubMed, arXiv, and Semantic Scholar to retrieve relevant papers and organise findings.

2. An End-to-End Life Science Research Agent

Explore how to combine literature with biological and drug-related evidence for a focused research task.

The hands-on session will use one of these workflows:

• Disease target identification

• Gene/protein functional annotation

• Drug repurposing evidence mining

3. A Multi-Agent Research Workflow

See how specialised agents can collaborate on a research question through a live demonstration.

Explore the roles of literature, target, data, analysis, and scientific validation agents—and how their outputs contribute to a final report.

Why Attend This Workshop?

Scientific research involves more than finding information. Researchers must connect sources, compare findings, assess limitations, and decide what evidence to trust.

This workshop introduces the practical foundations of building AI agents for these tasks. You will learn how to:

• Break a research question into a sequence of actionable steps.

• Connect AI systems to scientific tools and external data sources.

• Structure prompts and instructions for research workflows.

• Retrieve and compare evidence from multiple sources.

• Identify hallucinations, unsupported claims, and workflow limitations.

• Keep human judgement central to scientific validation.

The focus is on practical workflows, guided building, and responsible use of AI in research.

Who Should Attend?

Designed for learners and professionals interested in AI applications across:

• Biotechnology and life sciences

• Bioinformatics and computational biology

• Pharmaceutical sciences and drug discovery

• Chemistry and cheminformatics

• Academic and industry research

• Pharma and healthcare professionals: B.Pharm, M.Pharm, PharmD, MBBS, MD/MS graduates, practising doctors, and clinical researchers interested in applying AI to scientific literature research, evidence synthesis, and research automation.

• The workshop focuses on research applications; it doesn’t train participants to use AI for clinical diagnosis or treatment decisions.

Relevant for undergraduate and postgraduate students, PhD scholars, research fellows, faculty members, and working professionals.

Workshop Agenda

Time	Session	Speaker
10:00–10:10 AM	Welcome, workshop roadmap, and learning outcomes	Urmimala — Host
10:10–10:40 AM	Foundations: From Generative AI to Agentic AI	Dr. Shubhi Singh
10:40 AM–12:05 PM	Hands-on I: Building a Literature Research Agent	Dr. Bhupender Singh
12:05–1:30 PM	Hands-on II: End-to-End Life Science Research Agent	Mr. Raj Kumar Patra
1:30–2:00 PM	Lunch break	—
2:00–3:25 PM	Advanced Multi-Agent Systems for Biology, Pharma & Chemistry	Dr. Elamathi Natarajan
3:25–3:55 PM	Career & Industry: Becoming an AI-Enabled Researcher	Dr. Nilofer K. Shaikh
3:55–4:00 PM	Key takeaways, feedback, and certificate instructions	Host

What Each Session Covers

Session I: Foundations—From Generative AI to Agentic AI

Understand how AI research agents work and where they fit into scientific research.

• AI, machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI

• Chatbots, AI assistants, and AI research agents

• Core agent components: reasoning, tools, data, context, planning, action, and verification

• Applications in biology, bioinformatics, pharma, and chemistry

• Hallucinations, bias, reproducibility, and responsible AI

• Demonstration of an open-source biology agent

• Q&A

Session II: Hands-on—Building a Literature Research Agent

Learn how to design an agent that searches and organises scientific literature.

• Define a scientific research question.

• Design the agent’s role and instructions.

• Apply prompt engineering to research tasks.

• Understand tool calling, APIs, and structured data.

• Explore PubMed, arXiv, and Semantic Scholar.

• Extract information and compare findings.

• Verify AI-generated results against original sources.

• Build using guided templates, with advanced extensions discussed.

• Q&A

Session III: Hands-on—End-to-End Life Science Research Agent

Connect a biological question with relevant literature, databases, and evidence.

• Translate a research question into an agent workflow.

• Select appropriate databases and tools.

• Retrieve gene/protein and literature information.

• Explore target, pathway, functional, and compound evidence.

• Compare findings and identify potential research gaps.

• Evaluate scientific limitations.

• Generate a structured research report.

• Q&A

Focused project options: Disease target identification, gene/protein functional annotation, or drug repurposing evidence mining.

Session IV: Advanced Multi-Agent Systems for Biology, Pharma & Chemistry

Explore how specialised agents can work together on complex research tasks.

• Single-agent versus multi-agent systems

• Specialised literature, data, drug discovery, and analysis agents

• Scientific critic and validation agents

• Agent orchestration and task delegation

• Sequential and parallel workflows

• Agent-to-agent communication

• Advanced retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and APIs

• Reliability and human-in-the-loop validation

• Live multi-agent workflow demonstration

• Q&A

Session V: Career & Industry—Becoming an AI-Enabled Researcher

Understand how to continue developing your skills after the workshop.

• Industry applications of AI research agents

• Emerging roles across AI, bioinformatics, biotechnology, and pharma

• Beginner-to-advanced skills roadmap

• Building an AI-for-Life-Science portfolio

• Research project ideas for portfolio development

• Integrating agents into academic and industry workflows

• Data privacy and responsible AI considerations

• Q&A

Tools, Resources & Concepts You Will Explore

Area	Coverage
Scientific literature	PubMed, arXiv, Semantic Scholar
Biological evidence	Gene, protein, pathway, target, and drug-related resources
Open-source research agents	Biology-agent demonstrations, including resources such as Biomni
Agent development	Role instructions, prompt engineering, tool/function calling
Data connections	APIs and structured outputs
Evidence retrieval	RAG and multi-source information retrieval
Workflow design	Agent orchestration, sequential and parallel processes
Scientific reliability	Source verification, critical evaluation, human review

The exact software stack, account requirements, and any paid API requirements will be confirmed in the participant setup instructions.

What You Will Take Away

• Practical exposure to building a literature research agent.

• A guided end-to-end life science research workflow.

• An understanding of multi-agent research architecture.

• A reusable agent codebase/template for future practice.

• A beginner-to-advanced skill development roadmap.

• Portfolio project ideas for AI applications in life sciences.

• A framework for evaluating AI-generated research outputs responsibly.

Certificate: An e-certificate will be given to all who attend the workshop. 

Additional access: Access to the workshop recording will be made available for a duration of 5 days. Accounts should be activated in 48-72 Working Hours.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this workshop suitable for beginners?

Yes. The workshop includes a beginner-friendly pathway using pre-built templates. Participants with more experience can explore custom tools and multi-source retrieval approaches.

Will I build an agent or only watch demonstrations?

The workshop includes guided hands-on sessions for building a literature research agent and a focused life science research workflow. The advanced multi-agent session includes a live demonstration.

What research areas does it cover?

The workshop covers applications in biology, bioinformatics, drug discovery, pharmaceutical sciences, and chemistry. Examples include literature research, disease target identification, gene/protein annotation, and drug repurposing evidence mining.

Do I need paid AI subscriptions or API credits?

No. Paid AI subscriptions or API credits are not required for this workshop.

What should I prepare before attending?

We recommend using a laptop with a stable internet connection to follow the sessions and complete the hands-on activities. You can also watch on a mobile device, but a laptop will provide a better learning experience and allow you to participate fully.

Will recordings and presentation slides be provided?

The workshop recording will be available for five days. Your account will be activated within 48–72 working hours after the workshop. Presentation slides will not be shared separately.

Will I receive a certificate?

Yes. All participants who attend the workshop will receive an e-certificate.

Does the workshop include placement support?

The workshop includes career guidance, a skills roadmap, and portfolio project ideas. It does not include placement support.

How will I receive joining instructions?

After registering, you will receive the workshop joining link by email 24–48 hours before the workshop begins.

What is the cancellation or refund policy?

Workshop registrations are non-refundable.

Start Building Your AI Research Skills

Learn how to turn a scientific question into a structured, evidence-informed AI workflow—with guided practice and expert-led demonstrations.

Register for the Workshop Now

Need help registering?

Email: info@biotecnika.org